NEWTOWN — The transformation of the largest chunk of the former du Pont estate on Route 252 and Goshen Road is underway, and its developers are hoping the first of 449 luxury homes will be occupied within a year.

“Once we have the infrastructure done we will start on the model homes in the late spring or early summer,” Toll Brothers Vice President Brian Thierrin said. “Delivery could start late this calendar year or, more likely, early next year.”

The homes will be set on roughly 440 acres, most of them once owned by William du Pont Jr. and his first wife Jean Liseter Austin du Pont and, later, by the youngest of their four children, John Eleuthère du Pont. Additional land was culled from the former Biddle Farm.

The development, named Liseter, will feature a mix of carriage and single-family homes in an “age-targeted” community that will be rolled out in four phases during the next decade.

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“The smallest home site is an attached product with about 2,400 to 2,600 square feet (of living space),” Thierrin said. “The largest homes will be down the Goshen Road corridor and part of an area we are calling our Signature Series. They will be closer to 4,000 and 5,000 square feet on lots that range from a minimum of 30,000 square feet to just under two acres.

“The pricing is not finalized but the townhome products (are advertised as) starting in the $500,000s and the larger single family homes at $1.1 million.”

The plan also calls for a community clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts, fitness center and public walking trails.

Toll Brothers, which purchased the land last fall from Rouse Properties, is projecting the build-out value of Liseter to be in the range of $325 million.

“There are very specific design standards for this project that were developed by Rouse and the township and we will be following their plan to a T,” Thierrin said. “They worked hard to create a vision for what this property should be and we just inherited it.”

Thierrin believes Liseter’s history, topography and location will make it attractive to a range of buyers.

“We believe it’s a one of a kind property and many of our executives have said it is one of the most beautiful properties we have ever been involved with,” he said.

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For more than 80 years there was no reason to believe the du Pont estate would ever be sold or subdivided.

Comprised of more than 600 acres, the property was purchased in 1919 by Baldwin Locomotive executive William Liseter Austin as a wedding gift for his daughter Jean and her new husband.

For his part, William du Pont Jr.’s father, also named William, built the couple a replica of Montpelier, the former home of President James Madison which he had acquired in 1901.

William Jr. and his older sister Marion were raised on the Virginia estate, which was bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation following Marion’s death in 1983.

The three-story Georgian mansion in Newtown was named Liseter Hall, and the grounds surrounding it Liseter Hall Farm.

For decades the sprawling property was known for its horses. In addition to racehorse, hunter and show horse barns, the farm boasted the nation’s first indoor galloping track .

William du Pont Jr. loved thoroughbreds and would go on to design more than 20 race tracks, including Delaware Park.

After the couple’s divorce in 1941, Jean du Pont, already a noted equestrian, became a world-renown breeder of Welsh ponies. She was also a collector of carriages, wagons and stagecoaches, one of which was featured in the Audrey Hepburn film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Following her death in 1988, John du Pont renamed the property Foxcatcher Farm as a tribute to his father, who used the name for his racing stable in the 1920s.

While most of the 30 or so du Pont-era structures have already been or will soon be demolished to make way for Liseter, the 7,000 square-foot carriage barn is being restored and repurposed as a community clubhouse.

Developers also explored the possibility of working the mansion into the plan but ultimately decided against it. The space instead will be used for a pavilion and gardens.

“It was a great house and I’m sorry to see it go,” said Taras “Terry” Wochok, John du Pont’s longtime attorney. “I heard the estimates for updating the heating and air conditioning and insulation - basically all the things it would need in order for it to be used as a community house or for exhibition purposes - were in the $13 to $20 million range.”

John du Pont spent his last night in the mansion barricaded in the master bedroom prior to being arrested for the Jan. 26, 1996 murder of Olympic and world champion wrestler Dave Schultz.

Schultz was living on the estate while training for another Olympic bid and coaching Team Foxcatcher, a du Pont-sponsored wrestling team. With his wife Nancy looking on in horror, he was shot by du Pont while standing in the driveway outside his residence.

Du Pont was found guilty of murder but mentally ill and sentenced to 13-30 years in state prison. He died Dec. 9, 2010 at State Correctional Institution - Laurel Highlands in Somerset County, Pa. at the age of 72.

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If John Custer Jr. had gotten his way, the entire du Pont estate would have remained open space in perpetuity.

“I visited John du Pont in jail a couple of times when he was at Camp Hill and asked him to consider signing a deed restriction on the property,” said the former township supervisor and founder of the Newtown Environmental Advisory Council. “I went with Sid Elston (a member of the Newtown Square Historical Society) and as much as we tried to steer things in that direction, he was not too interested in discussing it.”

Custer said du Pont controlled their conversations and was more focused on his legal appeals than the future of his Delaware County estate.

“About the only thing he told me in that regard was that if he got out of jail early he would make the property a nature preserve and if he didn’t he was going to sell it to a developer,” he recalled.

While du Pont was medicated and exhibited paranoid tendencies before the Schultz murder, Custer said the chemical company heir “seemed perfectly lucid and normal” during their visits, which du Pont arranged in hopes Custer and Elston would put in a good word that would help advance the appeal.

Given the alternatives, Custer said the Liseter development is a good outcome for the township.

“I think we came out quite well,” he said. “There are minor incursions into the woods but by and large it’s preserved and we have that very nice 50-acre parcel that (Rouse) donated to the township.”

The parcel is located on the northern half of the property near Episcopal Academy, which relocated to a new 123-acre campus, also carved out of former du Pont farmland, in 2008.

Newtown Township Manager Michael Trio said the Liseter project has come a long way since Rouse first submitted plans for a more traditional upscale development.

“The first plan, which called for huge single-family lots, was not looked on very well by the board, the planning commission or the general public,” said Trio, a former member of the planning commission. “It was obviously an important site to the township and we did not want to see it developed under typical standards.”

Trio said the design standards manual for Liseter took a year to develop.

“It touches on everything - the way the roads are laid out, the building locations, the materials that will be used,” he said, adding that more than half of the acreage will be common open space.

“They will be creating a small little town that has some denser development radiating out into larger lots and open space,” he said.

While the development is expected to draw most of its buyers from the 55-and-over demographic, Custer believes some younger couples will also gravitate to Liseter.

“I think that given its proximity to Episcopal, it would be a natural for parents of Episcopal students to move in,” he said.

The development may also attract employees from the nearby North American headquarters of SAP.

“This is the kind of property and project that allows you to reach every different buying segment,” Thierrin said. “There will certainly be some residences with children but we don’t think that is going to be the majority.”

Marple Newtown School District officials will be meeting with Toll Brothers executives later this week to discuss the potential impact of the project on the district.

“We haven’t run the numbers but whether you are talking about realty transfer or property taxes, this is going to provide a great boost to Newtown Township and the surrounding area,” Thierrin predicted.

Though he believes the property is in good hands, Custer, a longtime resident of the Echo Valley community that borders the former du Pont estate, would have much preferred fields and forest to master suites and manicured lawns.

“We started out in the mid- and late-1990s with a lot of open space and now it’s gone,” he said. ”It would have been nice if we had been able to preserve a good deal more acreage for the future.”